Hot stick for applying preformed armor



Feb. 20, 1962 E. COLEMAN Filed March 23, 1959 I HOT STICK FOR APPLYING PREFORMED ARMOR INVENTOR.

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dfiZLdYS Patented Feb. 20, I962 3,021,875 HGT TICK FQR APPLYWG PREFORMEI) ARMQR Eldridge Coleman, 1540 E. Cambridge, Phoenix, Ariz. Filed Mar. 23, 1959, Ser. No. 801,321 2 Claims. (Cl. 140-93) This invention pertains to hot stick poles used in on live high tension electric transmission lines.

More particularly the invention pertains to hot sticks used in applying armor to the transmission lines which protects the line from excessive bending and contact with objects near the point of suspension on the pole.

It is well known that it has been found necessary and advisable to add additional strands of wire to cables suspended from insulators where there is a considerable amount of stress, tension, bending and swaying of the transmission line. Strands of pro-formed wire have been added to the transmission line on each side of these points of suspension and this is known as armor. This armor tends to stifien the wire at the point of attachment to the insulator and to protect the main line from excessive bending and rebending which would in time cause it to break at the point of attachment to the insulator.

This armor is prepared by being pressed into shape so that several strands or a bundle may be applied to the line Wire (usually stranded) by wrapping around it. These pre-formed strands will fit around the line Wire just as though they had been wrapped around it in the first place. Since the size of the wire is standardized these pro-formed strands may be easily made on proper machinery at the plant. Each bundle of pro-formed armor strands covers the line wire incompletely. In other words it takes several bundles or strands to completely cover and armor the line wire. In practice, where these strands are applied to the live line wires, several bundles are applied one at a time. Each bundle of preformed armor wires fills in between the other bundles and when complete the armor lies on the line wire completely covering it just as though all the wires composing it had been wound around it in place. The armor must be applied while the line wire is hot, and a tool of this type enables the worker to apply the armor strands without taking the line wire out of service, and enables him to do all the operations necessary to apply the armor in comparative safety.

I attain the foregoing objects by means of the device and its component parts illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein- IGURE 1 is a side elevational view of a hot stick tool embodying my improvements;

FIGURE 2 is a front elevational view of this tool;

FIGURE 3 is a top view thereof;

FIGURE 4 is a side elevational view of the tool about to apply armor to a line wire showing particularly the first step;

FIGURE 5 is a view of two identical tools of the type here disclosed, in use and illustrating particularly the second step;

FIGURE 6 is a similar view showing a third step in the process of applying the armor;

FIGURE 7 is a fourth step used in applying the armor; and FIGURE 8 is a cross section of the tool handle taken on line 88 of FIGURE 2 and drawn on an enlarged scale.

The tool consists essentially of a handle 2 of insulating material which is about 1 /2 inches in diameter and ten feet long. In FIGURES 1 and 2 portions are broken away to conserve space on the paper.

At the top end of the handle 2 there is a head 3. This includes a ferrule and base 4 which fits onto the handle 2 and on a vertical web member 18 which extends upward therefrom to provide a bracket 5. On the top 6 of the bracket there is a stationary vise jaw 20 to the top of which the double hook '7 is attached. The double hook 7 has the shape of a C. The lower prong 8 has a transversely extending jaw piece 9. The oppositely positioned upper tine 12 also has a transverse prong 14.

Head 3 is provided with a sliding vise jaw 15. One side 16 of this jaw slides in a slot 17 in web portion 18 of bracket 5 which extends alined with the handle 2. The slot 17 continues around the lower face 21 of top jaw 20 and receives the upwardly extending portion 22 of the lower sliding vise jaw 15.

Lower jaw 15 is moved in the direction parallel to the axis of handle 2 by a push rod 24 which extends through a guide 25 on the ferrule and base 4. At the lower end of the push rod 24 there is a sliding sleeve 26 which may be grasped by the hand of the person using the tool and slid on the lower portion of handle 2. Its position on handle 2 may be secured by a thumb screw 27. The mating edges of jaws 2t and 15 have notches 28 in the upper jaw 25}, and mating or registering notch 22 in the lower jaw 15. The sides of these notches, since they are rounded and converge, tend to crowd the wires of armor strand 31 and hold them together as a bundle when the strand is first placed on the line wire A, as shown particularly in FIGURE 4.

This figure shows the first strand 31 of the armor positioned on the line wire A with one of the convolutions, indicated by numeral 32, hooked over the line wire. It will be noted that the wires are bundled together and are clamped by the jaws 20 and 15 in head 3. This structure may be known as the armor strand vise and indicated generally by the letter B. In the position shown in FIGURE 4, and just after the strand 31 is placed over the line wire it is to be noted that the upper bond 12 of hook 7 is hooked over the line wire A in order to steady the tool head 3 and to maintain the tool head 3 in position so that the strand 31 will also remain in the position desired and as shown in FIGURE 4.

After the first strand 31 has been placed in position and held by first tool C, a second tool D of the same identical structure as that of tool C, is placed near the opposite end 3111 of the strand from the end held by the tool first shown. This tool is positioned so that the upper bend 12, of its book 7, engages one of the convolutions of the strand 31, near end 31b, behind the line Wire A as it is observed in FIGURE 5. With the strand engaged by this upper hook 12, the line wire may be twisted or Wrapped in a direction, first into the plane of the paper as observed in FIGURE 5 and thence under line wire A and thence up and over line wire A and then again toward the plane of the paper. In this last movement the lower portion 8 of hook 7 is used to hold and push the strand 31. The hook 7 is then removed from the end 31b of the strand 31 and is again hooked onto strand 3]. near end 31b, in a position similar to that shown in FIGURE 5. Meanwhile the strand 31 is kept in position and prevented from twisting by tool C which grasps the strand in the vise B. This condition is maintained while wrapping is continued by tool D until the entire right hand end 31b of the strand has been twisted around line wire A as shown in FIGURE 7.

Thereafter tool D is manipulated so that its vise B holds the strand end 31b tight on the line wire A, as shown in FIGURE 7, while tool C is used to twist the armor strand 31 from the position 32 toward the end of the strand indicated as 31c. The beginning of this operation is shown in FIGURE 7.

The wrapping of the left end 310 of the strand 31 is continued until strand 31 is completely wrapped on line wire A.

The ends of the individual wires of strand 31 may, in some cases, stick out from the line wire A and not be flat. To force them to lie flat I use the transverse splayed hook ends 9 and 14 to force or bend them down into place. These jaw pieces have enough surface so that they maybe easily forced on the loose ends of the wires of the strand 31. In practice several strands of preformed armor strands are used to completely cover and armor the wire or cable A. Twisted strands 31 of wires are made to fit onto several sizes of line wires or cables and are known to the trade as preformed armor.

I claim:

1. A hot stick tool for wrapping preformed spiral armor strands on an energized line wire, consisting of a pole shaped handle of insulating material, a head attached to the top of said handle having a bracket, a vise operating on said bracket including a stationary horizontal upper jaw at the top of said bracket and having a centrally disposed arcuate notch on its under face and a slot co-extensive with the jaw opening on its under face, a lower jaw slidably supported on said upper jaw and having an upper face adapted to slidably enter the slot on. the lower face of said upper jaw and provided with an arcuate notch in registering position with the arcuate notch in the upper jaw, said jaws defining an opening extending away from said bracket, a push rod slidably supported in said head and connected to said movable jaw at its upper end and extending downward from said bracket parallel to said handle, a sleeve having a locking screw and slidably supported on the lower portion of said handle and attached to the lower end of said push rod, and a C shaped double hook attached to the top of said stationary jaw, extending in the same plane as, said vise and having the opening between its tines facing in the same direction as the opening of the spacebetween said vise jaws; the ends of said tines being splayed to provide fiat areas for pressing individual wires of preformed wire strand into place.

2. A hot stick tool for wrapping preformed spiral armor strands on an energized. line wire, consisting of a pole shaped handle of insulating material, a head attached to the top of said. handle having a bracket, a vise operating on said bracket including a stationary horizontal upper jaw at the top of said bracket and having a centrally disposed arcuate notch on its under face and a slot co-extensive with the jaw opening on its under face, a lower jaw slidably supported on said upper jaw and having an upper face adapted to slidably enter the slot on the lower face of said upper jaw and provided with an arcuate notch in registering position with the arcuate notch in the upper jaw, said jaws defining an opening extending away from said bracket, a push rod slidably supported in said head and connected to said movable jaw at its upper end and extending downward from said bracket parallel to said handle, a sleeve having a locking screw and slidably supported on the lower portion of said handle and attached to the lower end of said push rod, and a C' shaped double hook attached to the top of saidstationary jaw, extending in the same plane as said vise and having the opening between its tines facing in the same direction as the opening of the space between said vise jaws.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Spears Oct. 30, 1956 

